Halo: The Night Before
by Hunter63
Summary: What was a simple security operation on the Cruiser turned freighter, The Night Before. Turns into a fight for survival as Officer Oliver Brown must prevent Commander Vyrnnus and his men from capturing needed information, can he defeat the Turian forces, and can he save the survivors on board as well? Based on "Midnight In The Heart Of Midlothian" Please Review and support.
1. Prologue

**Authors Note:** Here it is, This is the prequel to the upcoming story Halo: Requiem. Since this story leads into (possibly chapter five) this story takes top priority, though I am still interested into that small story I made about the Ara, and hopefully I might get back onto writing Honor and Glory again. But at he moment this takes top priority since this stuff has been worked on for a long time, warning, chapter One is a little wonky but future chapters will hopefully be smoother.

* * *

**The Night Before**

**Chapter One - Prologue**

* * *

It was dark, a room where the only light source was a small hanging lamp. A man was sitting in a chair, with a small drink and a half eaten chocolate bar in front of him on a table. As he finished swallowing a bite from said chocolate, he looked up at the door, patiently awaiting for someone to walk in he was almost annoyed really, the quietness was almost killing him and he wanted someone to just talk to him already. The man had a worn out but muscled face, he had a brown buzz cut and a goatee and mustache that was stained from sweat, His name is Oliver Brown. His occupation is a Security officer, he usually jumped ship to ship fighting off pirates every once and a while, but there was not much and even when pirates showed up a UNSC vessel soon showed up to combat it, so he never saw much action. Brown took a deep breath and looked around the room as it suddenly lit up brightly. The Words UNSC were written on a door which suddenly opened.

"Sorry I couldn't make it more comfortable when we put you inside. We had a hell lot of people to take care of, including you." The man said, Brown simply looked up and layed back in his chair confused.

"Then why am I in here Mr?" He asked, the other man simply chuckled and pulled his chair out so he can sit.

"My name is not important at the moment Mr. Brown. However what transpired is important. Now Mr. Brown if I recall correctly, you were stationed on the UNSC Freighter, The Night Before correct? As a simple Security Officer right?" The Man asked him. Oliver didn't know who this guy was, he could be anything really, but the most likely answer was that he was an ONI spook. What he did know, at least from when he was waking up earlier, was that he is currently above the planet Harvest, inside a UNSC Centurion Class Battleship called the Pearl Harbor.

"Correct." Brown said as the man changed his posture, moving forward with his left elbow layed on the table. The man in front then placed a small device on the table which then created a holographic representation of a armored birdlike being, they were called Turians.

"Now you know as well as I do this thing is not friendly, you fought them yourself. Tell me what you know about these things." The Man said

"Tell me your name first, because right now I have the term asshole interrogator in mind." Brown retorted

"Just call me AI then, now... What do you know about these things?" AI said, increasing the aggression his voice.

"They call themselves Turians, from what I remember their leader is some guy named Commander Vyrnnus, and the dude had some serious issues with him." Brown said, AI shifted position, getting closer before speaking himself.

"Can you tell me anything about this Vyrnnus?"

"The dude apparently already hates us, Says we broke Citadel law and thus we need to be punished. That and he had some sort of powers." Brown stopped when he said powers, only because AI moved his hand, an order to be silent.

"Powers? When you say powers you don't mean stuff like from comics right?"

"Might as well, he hit me with something like a stasis generator, but he had nothing on his wrist armor at all, and the armor itself was so close to his skin it couldn't have been hidden, that and he had some sort a glow around the hand, so I can only guess." Brown said, AI taking in every word.

"Very well, how about you tell me of the events of December 25, 2617."

"Okay, well, it started..." Brown said

* * *

**Authors Note:** Again, sorry if chapter One was a little wonky, I promise the later chapters will be better, anyways each chapter will be longer and will have a Codex. I hope you all enjoy this story, and remember when it is done Halo Requiem will shortly follow suit.

**Codex**

**UNSC The Night Before:** The UNSC Star ship, The Night Before was a Halcyon Class Cruiser Commissioned early in the Great War against the Covenant. The Night Before was known for participating in numerous battles during the war, specifically during the Battle of Reach. During the climax of the war, the Night Before landed several critical hits to the invading Covenant Fleet during the Invasion of Earth. The Night Before would soon serve under the UNSC Infinity during their operation to the Shield World Requiem. In 2599 the Night before also served in the same fleet as the Infinity, when they were sent by HIGHCOM to recover a Forerunner artifact from the Shield World named "The Crucible". After the battle near the installation by the Storm Fleet, the Night Before was fixed and refitted into a UNSC freighter, in 2617 it was attacked and boarded by the Turian Hierarchy when it along with other ships tried to use a mass relay which led to the planet Harvest. Led by Commander Vyrnnus the Turians attacked the ships leaving the Night Before so they could gain knowledge on the Humans they now faced. Oliver Brown, a security officer on the ship, engaged the Turians, and is currently on the UNSC Pearl Harbor, in a private interview with a man currently known as AI.


	2. Departure

**Authors Note: **Note, not all chapters are going to be like this, just know that outside of quotes, it is Brown retelling the events of the Attack on the Night Before, italic quotes are AI talking to Brown in the present (except in the small middle segment) and another few things (which are obviously not AI speaking). This type of chapter will only be repeated before the final chapter, this just basically is a transition. Also remember, as I said this story is short, there might only be a few chapters at most.**  
**

* * *

**The Night Before**

**Chapter Two - Departure  
**

* * *

**UEG Freighter - The Night Before  
**

**Shanxi**

**Christmas Eve  
**

It was an average day on the Shanxi Docking port. Thousands of ships were landing and being filled to the very tip of the hull in supplies and products for transfer. One one of the ships was more notable than the rest. The Night Before, it was a Halcyon Class Cruiser refitted for Civilian use, it was docked on the main port just outside of Fort Charleston if I remember correctly. Men and women were packing some objects just in case of a mishap on the ship, such as a cosmic anomaly causing the slipspace engine to shut down, not for any fucking alien invaders. Anyways me, my friend Daniel and Joseph were walking to the ship ready to get to work, you know so we can get home in time for Christmas and all. Well Daniel had a good idea of how to make the day suck already, and on Christmas Eve.

"Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock  
Jingle bells swing and jingle bells ring  
Snowin' and blowin' up bushels of fun  
Now, the jingle hop has begun"

"We get it Daniel, you can't wait for Christmas, whoopdyfuckingdoo." I said, and I meant it, I fucking hate the great mood, why can;t this be 21st century America were it was banned because Christmas was still strongly tied to religion, I want that.

_"Get back on topic Brown, now tell me what happened next."_

"You know Oliver, if you weren't such a Grinch we wouldn't have these problems, just get in the mood." Daniel told me, and I admit, I took it in for a moment, but then my rotten heart spit it back out. Now you might want to know what Daniel looked like, after all there was a lot of commotion when you guys picked us up. Basically he was the burly dude, you know the guy that if he had any more hair, he would look like a fucking fatass brute midget. He also was starting to grew in parts of his hair, and he had the scariest looking mouth in the galaxy.

_"You seemed to strongly dislike this guy, did you think this was going to be a problem later on when the Turians attacked?"_

Nah, hell, I thought I was the only man left alive, then again I was thinking of a lot of things, but right now it is time to get back on track.

_"Carry on"_

"Listen, I am not going to be all happy and cheery just because it is Christmas Eve, while we are here scratching our ass, I bet you everyone else not working as Santa today are drinking hot coco near a nice warm fire."

"Oliver, it is 87 degrees outside." Joseph said, this was a guy I could get behind, even when he was a jerk. He was quite, calm, he knew how to work hard, and hey he was from Harvest, we all know those guys like picking things right? Well I didn't take the interruption quite well at the moment.

_"How did you respond?"_

Well...

"Fuck you Joseph, I was talking about Harvest."

"Oliver, Harvest is in a spring cycle right now." Joseph replied, it only made me roll my eyes, I mean really, he has to be one of **those** guys. Anyways we all shut up by that point and just continued walking, we didn't have much trouble getting past the identification office and we picked up our gear. We basically had some M6J Carbines, which were basically Pistols with some added stuff to make them a Carbine. And I brought a Shotgun, M45 I think; it was similar but it had a more hunting rifle like stock and was tan here and there, pretty much a custom security variant I guess.

By the time we made it on the ship for real I managed to get into my temporary room, seeing that the trip can take at least a day or two. So I decided to unpack and look at what I brought, to be perfectly honest...I kinda enjoyed being on the ship, before hand I was moping around and wanted nothing to do with the ship but I was feeling excited.

* * *

"So, why exactly are you starting out on Christmas Eve? I asked you to tell me what transpired on the events of the 25th." AI said, as Oliver layed back in his chair.

"I felt like it would be the best thing to start there, might get confusing if I didn't."

"Fine, but what I want to know is how you got hold of military grade hardware, the UNSC does not permit the use of military weapons on a civilian level, and despite your role as a security officer, you were permitted the SOCOM."

Brown nodded and took in his words, and he responded quickly to avoid putting himself in a bad position. "The UNSC gave them to me, the Security personnel on the ships were given a permit to hold UNSC weapons. Admiral Hoffman wanted to at least buff us up in case of the storm attacking, or I think that if he didn't act upon that feeling, The Senate would have had a field day with HighCom, think of it as a favor."

"I am going check my sources and see if this is true, I will let you off right now, but you will be detained at the minimal amount of jail time if this is a lie." AI warned "Now what did you do after you checked your room, don't leave the dirty stuff."

"Okay, it went like this."

* * *

After I was done fixing my bed - which for some reason or another was messy that you might think there was a crime committed there - I immediately walked outside, pistol by my side I walked around the halls making sure everything was good, obviously the ship only held 300 personnel and everything was not present. I walked past a hall and looked at the lab, just a few centimeters away really. I knew these things were on UNSC ships but this is the first time i saw one, in real life at that. Sadly the thing was cleared out so I couldn't get a peak at any stuff that might be cool to add to my blog.

_"You had a Blog?"_

Yeah, I had it every once and a while, though I couldn't update it on the ship, which kinda irked me that I couldn't, but I had to deal with it. I looked around shaking my head, reason being that I almost pitied the Night Before, such a powerful and glorious ship, turned into an over sized freighter, it was kinda hilarious though, it made me wonder if the MAC still worked, or if it was taken out for more cargo space.

I looked around after checking the time on my C-Pad, and saw nothing good going on while I was at it. Bored from the pure boredom I decided that since there were around fifty other officers on board, I might take a break and watch something on FreeWeb.

_"Hello, this is UNSC Fort Bravo, Harvest. I'm Corporal Damon Winters, and I am here to tell you why joining the UNSC Marine Corps is the best thing to do when you leave college."_

"Boring, I hate advertisements." Luckily I didn't have to wait, after listening to that jackass I had time to watch a quick video of some kids from Achernon, they were trying to do the old cinnamon challenge, which was first popular in the early 21st century.

After laughing as they failed horribly, I looked around and saw nothing, I felt a little lonely, so I sat up and began walking towards the nearest elevator. Just as I got there however, I stopped as the PA blared up.

"This is your Captain speaking, we are about to go through the Phase Gate, all personnel are to hold on."

"They didn't even perfect the entire thing yet? At least it is better than what would have happened without the technology. " As I sat down in between two outward walls, the quick momentum nearly thrusted me to the wall to my left. As I rubbed off the small pain I stood up and walked to the elevator, I was looking forward to finding out if there were any incidents or not.

When I got in the elevator, and picked my destination, I heard a strange hum near my left. As I turned around I saw a holographic representation of going adult male in a business suit, a Smart A.I obviously.

"What the, why is a Smart A.I on a civilian freighter?" I asked, the A.I raised its eyebrow to me.

"Because, I am required to open up a phase gate, designated as 314." It said, it only confused me more.

"Why are you revealing so much information, I'm a civilian."

"I'm just bored, plus its not that bad, your all going to get the news eventually."

"Damn, why did A.I's have to be so smart."

"Thank you, but it is really common sense." the A.I told me.

The elevator was taking an excruciating amount of time, the awkward feeling just kept growing as we stood near each other.

"So what takes you here? You know, in the elevator with me." I inquired.

"Bored, decided to see how this looks, to be honest this is overrated, prefer sending data from location A to location B, much faster, and more effective." The A.I "The names Montag by the way, its the day of the moon in other words."

"Nice to meet you Montag, so is there anything you want to tell me, just to pass the time?" I asked, he raised an eyebrow and then began scratching his chin (At least his equivalent s he is, after all a hologram of a computer.)

"Sarah is better at this, but shes on the Pearl Harbor. And I doubt Malik would even be interested when we get back to Shanxi. You know what, I will give it a try, name anything, it can be a basic math equation or just discussing things like the plausibility of using reduced mass fields in slipspace to speed up FTL. Or we could go complex and discuss how it is possible that the universe is sentient, or sapient, depends on the person these days I hear. Have a jar or something, I could probably tell you how many particles of cinnamon there are, or maybe -"

"Maybe later, elevator is about to stop." I asked, and as I moved away from the elevator I swore I heard him slur the word asshole towards my direction, Montag was an energetic A.I at least.

When I exited the elevator, I took the time to look at the garden that was placed in the ship nearby, I guessed it was made for mood enlightenment or some shit like that. But I was not happy or enlightened, just bored, luckily I was not far from the cafeteria. As I walked the halls I saw a lot of gifts, and a lot of easy to break objects, they were usually in a place that was far to risky to place them. I didn't care anyways and I continued walking around making sure everything was fine.

After an hour or so, I was done, finished really. I decided to take a break and nap in my bed for the hour, there would be enough time when I woke up to continue working. After all the entire area was secure and everyone else had it settled, I might as well sleep. This however was a bad idea, because sometime after I fell asleep, the Turians Attacked and thats when the story really begins.

* * *

**Authors Note:** Sorry if it seems a little short or anything. Anyways this is just a transitional chapter, the writing reflects that they are words someone is speaking, but the next chapter will at least (hopefully) flow much better as it won't be Brown telling the events directly, just the actual story. Anyways I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and please, comment and review (positive, half of the negative comments I ever got from people were poorly conceived anyways but hey, I can't dictate peoples actions.)

**Codex  
**

**Phase Gates**:Phase Gates are mass transit devices scattered throughout the galaxy, usually located within star systems. From what is currently known, they form an enormous network allowing interstellar travel. A Phase gate can transport ships instantaneously to another gate within the network, allowing for journeys that would otherwise take years or even decades with out FTL. The UEG after initial discovery found that the transit system worked better with the recently discovered Element Zero, while UNSC technology already guaranteed the crews survival, the initial contact with a phase gate was still risky, thus forcing the research into a way to dampen out the issues. Since the Phase Gates offer minimal military advantage if any, it was assumed they were created for freighters and civilian craft, possibly by an ancient race or current one. It is not known whether they were made for the benefit of a single race for their race, or by a collective for the better of all races, or any variation overall, the Phase gates FTL capabilities are still behind UNSC and Covenant grade slipspace in tactical ability but are great at time.


	3. Break In

**Authors Note:** Sorry for the wait, due to the sheer size of these chapters, I am going to upload a small section at a time and then update them when I can, this is sorta harder than what I am working on with other stuff, don't know why.

**The Night Before**

**Chapter Three - Break In**

* * *

The UEG ship, The Night Before was floating, no exhaust came from the engine, no light anywhere, dead in space as one can be. It's hull was punctured, nearly decimated by kinetic impact. The ship was floating past a lost star just as a few small objects hit the openings of the ship, with a clank the strange objects hit the smaller impact zones. When they opened strange soldiers in armor walked out, communicating in a language not associated with any species in the Orion–Cygnus Arm. As they cut their way into a door which lead to the ships interior (the impacts having been closed by bulkheads.) It wouldn't be a moment later that the wall as kicked down and within moments a firefight began. Security forces that set up a set of barricades opened fire with their mass accelerators, the blue streaks created from halonic fields paced their way towards the invaders, their shields began to lighten up, without a doubt the defenders had superior fire power, but the aliens were not to far behind, and their fire rate was slightly faster to compensate. Within moments the fight ended, minimal causalities from the aliens, but the defenders died, mostly due to the lack of shielding. As they moved out one notable Turian walked in with white armor, a notable contrast to the dark grey and black that the ship had all over, at least in this portion.

"Commander Vyrnnus, what is our current goal?" A soldier asked before he continued.

"I want this ships captain taken out of commission, and I want all data extracted." The alien said sharply, the soldier nodding before running to catch up with his unit.

The Turians have attacked, in what was a unstoppable outcome, the Night Before has been been severely damaged, the Turians conducted a successful interception and penetration so far, but how easy things would go later, would be left to see.

* * *

His room was a mess, anything not stuck to the wall fell everywhere, with one man, Brown; knocked out on his bed thanks to a falling trophy, it didn't hurt him to much but he was still severely hurt. Brown started opening his eyes, the smell of burnt plastic and burning wires filled the air. Ina shock he turned himself up laying his back against the wall in a shock, holding his head in pain.

"What the hell happened?" He asked, looking around his room. It was a mess, his stuff was everywhere and there was even a dent into the wall. Brown turned his focus to dressing up in more suitable clothing, he obviously wasn't cut out for any possible small scale hazard, though that is if one occurred. All Brown knew was that his room was shaken up pretty good.

As Oliver grabbed some extra layers of clothing, he took the time to put on some M52B body armor, something the Marines wore late in the Insurrection and all the way through the Human-Covenant War. As he placed the helmet over his head he opened his door, pistol in hand.

There was too many questions, at first it seemed like the ship passed through a Phase Gate, but now after looking through the battered halls, where blood trails and holes from slugs layered the scenery, Oliver knew they were attacked, the only question was by who?

As he quickly took cover by a nearby crate he first thought Kig-Yar Pirates, reports suggested that they were filling this sector for a while, raiding ships and stealing any Slipspace Drives. But then why are there slugs in the wall, Kig-Yar prefer their needler weaponry instead.

The worst immediately came to his head, in a flash he took away the possibility of Human pirates, or even the Kig-Yar, and changed focus to the possibility of a Jiralhanae attack. The Jiralhanae were a major threat, despite loosing to the Sangheili int he Great Schism, the Jiralhanae under their own Empire managed to lay claim to a large part of space before claiming their sovereignty over the regions, the only good thing they did after that was give a star chart of their systems before going into isolationism.

For Oliver, a Jiralhanae attack could mean a new war, but there was something else that triggered a change. There was a distinct lack of blood. When Brown turned his head to look at a body it was just shot dead, with out any form of massive blood splatter and gore present. If this was a Jiralhanae attack, then there would have been blood everywhere and the body would have been much messier.

This led Brown to come up with something entirely different, first contact with a new species, and they were hostile.

Oliver looked around, not sure if he was doing this "tactical stealth" thing right. It didn't stop him from attempting to roll to the nearest door. Despite failing in what would have been hilarious without the fact there are invaders and dead bodies around, Brown placed his back to the wall and scanned the area.

Brown didn't waste time and began to walk into the main part of the room, it was very dark, and he could barely make out its purpose, he was about to turn on the light near him until he heard what he guess were words, from a language he never heard of before. He was shocked, and scared, unsure of what he just heard he quickly looked for a way out of the problem.

Not willing to give up, he took himself to the floor quickly, but without placing his entire weight into it. The benefit of him wearing the security outfit was that he had civilian grade shielding, something the other guards didn't get a hand on when the invasion of the ship began.

As the Aliens Causally walked into the room, there was a strange orange glow from one of their arms, Oliver was able to to make out some features of the species, thanks mostly to the one without the light kneeling down to investigate something.

The thing had these mandibles around its mouth with these markings, natural or other wise on its face. The overall design seemed similar to the evolutionary link between the ancient Dinosaurs of Earth, and Birds, which if anything are just the modern dinosaurs.

Brown didn't hesitate to keep on moving, hiding behind some desk which was flipped on its side when the ship was attacked. Brown peaked behind the edge of the desk to look at the aliens.


End file.
